Victory of the Losers - According to Heinrich von Kleist

Narrative Coup

The conciliatory conclusion of the novella, which oscillates in the lowlands of a trivial resolution, seems to have been pasted on. The permanence of the crisis leads to family coziness. Juiletta gives birth to "a whole series of young Russians". It is completed within a conventional framework that draws the previous events, especially the individual turmoil, into a degrading bracket.

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After the hasty death of her husband, the Marquise of O..., Julietta for short, returns to her parents' house. The parents live in the commander's quarters of a northern Italian citadel. It is occasionally stormed by Russian troops. The Tsar's soldiers are retreating. They are currently losing a war while winning many a skirmish. In any case, the Italian fort doesn't pose any problems for them. The commander, pushed to the outer edge of freedom of choice, soon no longer has any hope. He doesn't even try to keep up appearances. Julietta's father doesn't surrender only because he doesn't believe the conquerors have the generosity of the pardon. With "sinking strength" he retreats to a final line. Now a Russian captain appears on the scene, glowing with fighting spirit. He bluntly calls on the loser to surrender. Julietta's Father throws himself into the arms of the winner.

"I was just waiting for this request," he sighs and gets rid of his sword. The hapless military man returns the father of the family. He just wants to be able to retreat to the castle so that he can devote himself entirely to "his family". 

This reminds me of another dud. Lord Warden of the Marches Thomas Ap Llewelyn gave up Fort Terbourg after a two-day storm, although the fortress could have been held for six months. 

"Terbourg today Cherbourg - a port city on the English Channel - has been a fortress since ancient times and has had a castle protecting the Cotentin Coast since the 10th century." Wikipedia    

The commander let himself be fired upon just long enough to keep up appearances, then handed over. In the fort lay forty cannon, seven thousand two hundred projectiles d'artillerie, twelve thousand bombs, fourteen hundred grenades, seventeen thousand gargousses and seventy thousand pounds of lead.

Larger calibers would have squandered everything before surrendering. 

Orderlies jokingly passed hanged men moving in the wind at full gallop. Llewelyn, a native of Ysgubor-y-coed/Cardiganshire, left for Wales, accompanied only by two rascals with scarified oceanic designs.

The striker and pusher, elevated to the pedestal by Heinrich von Kleist, shows a lot of understanding for Julietta's father, as his mild nature suits him. He places a guard at G.'s side and has him step away. Then he rushes back "to the head of a detachment". 

Huge fires have now broken out. The Captain orders the fires to be put out, making himself the first firefighter. He performs "miracles of effort" and risks his life. He handles the hose like he used to handle the sword. 

This is no small thing. At least consider the arsenals full of gunpowder and bombs. Danger of explosion is in the air. Kleist registers a "shudder among the Asians" and thus implicitly refers to a perceived continuation of the Hun and Mongol storms. The horror and the reflex arc come from the Altaic steppes. The European unconscious obediently presents a form of fear.  

True Heart

"I wrote a larger novella. She... brought me thirty guilders. I stopped sewing gloves and started a short novel. It was finished in three months and I received three hundred guilders for it." Wanda von Sacher-Masoch

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"This lunchtime I was at Goethe's table for the first time. Apart from him, there were only Frau von Goethe, Miss Ulrike and little Walter present, and we were comfortably among ourselves. Goethe showed himself to be a family man, he presented all the dishes, carved roasted poultry, with particular skill, and missed Not even to pour a glass every now and then." Johann Peter Eckermann